-rom or not -rom.

[suppafreak]

I am authoring DVDs and obviously have some people complaining that the DVD does not play in their DVD player. I always tell them "if you have a DVD player that is older than 2 years, there is a 50% chance that DVD will not play." I use the Verbatim DataLifePlus DVD-R and Plextor 708A to burn the DVDs by creating an image and writing at 4X. The Plextor 708A supports the -rom setting.

My question is this. Does burning the DVD-R DVDs with -rom setting increases the chances of DVD playability or the -rom setting only helpful for DVD+R DVDs?

[RottenFoxBreath]

i would say only for +R,not really for -R.
but im more enclined to say that your burner may be the problem,more so than a 2 year old dvd player.
ive had a plextor,sony and an NEC burner in the past,and none have matched the pioneers(which burn -R as rom anyway) for compatibility,mind you,they dont support bitsetting,but +R(RW) isnt a problem,as i dont know anyone who uses it,apart from my father in his dvd recorder.
-R has always worked great,and some discs that have not played has always been down to the speed of burn or quality of discs.
but as you are using verbatims,i cant see a great deal of problems if you use copytodvd,or any other decent software to burn,but not nero,thats always been a thorn in my side.

EDIT:mind you,if you get a real bitch of a player that just wont play -R,then bitsetting to rom and using a +R usually would do the trick.

[suppafreak]

I use the ImgBurn tp burn the DVDs. Also I had the Plextor for couple of years now and at thr time it got pretty good reviews. What is the Pioneer model you are using?

[suppafreak]

I am thinking to replace my Plextor 708A. Which one would you think is better?

Pioneer DVR-109 Dual Layer DVD±RW Writer
http://vcdhelp.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=6244291/search=Pioneer+DVR-109+

OR

LG Electronics GSA- 4167B Dual Layer DVD±RW Writer
http://vcdhelp.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=11964139/sort_type=bottomline

[Noahtuck]

i would say only for +R,not really for -R.
but im more enclined to say that your burner may be the problem,more so than a 2 year old dvd player.
ive had a plextor,sony and an NEC burner in the past,and none have matched the pioneers(which burn -R as rom anyway) for compatibility,mind you,they dont support bitsetting,but +R(RW) isnt a problem,as i dont know anyone who uses it,apart from my father in his dvd recorder.
-R has always worked great,and some discs that have not played has always been down to the speed of burn or quality of discs.
but as you are using verbatims,i cant see a great deal of problems if you use copytodvd,or any other decent software to burn,but not nero,thats always been a thorn in my side.

EDIT:mind you,if you get a real bitch of a player that just wont play -R,then bitsetting to rom and using a +R usually would do the trick.

(which burn -R as rom anyway)

My understanding has always been that you can't change the booktype on -R to DVD-ROM ?? only +R

[thevoelk]

I think he meant that -R standard inherently is -ROM when it's burned.

[Noahtuck]

I think he meant that -R standard inherently is -ROM when it's burned.

Well, that's not accurate either

[Cornucopia]

There's DVD-Forum rules, and then there's DVD+R/W Alliance rules...

Under the DVD-Forum, these are the only "allowable" book types:

DVD-ROM for DVD-ROM discs
DVD-R for DVD-R(A) or DVD-R(G) discs
DVD-RW for DVD-RW discs
DVD-RAM for DVD-RAM (old 2.7?GB or new 4.37GB) discs

Nothing else.

Under DVD+R/W Alliance, these are the "preferred" book types:

DVD+R for DVD+R discs
DVD+RW for DVD+RW discs

But, as these are only preferred, you can often set them to something else with the right burner firmware (mostly -ROM 'cuz that usually gives best compatibility). Here are some examples:

DVD-ROM for DVD+R or DVD+RW discs
DVD-R for DVD+R or DVD+RW discs
DVD+R for DVD+R or DVD+RW discs
DVD+RW for DVD+R or DVD+RW discs
(the other 2 could be used, but WHY?)

Those were the rules, now the reality--

If a burner works with Forum type discs they are expected to comply with the rules, but they don't have to really comply on the +R/W Alliance discs. And there are recent, maybe-not-so-legit firmwares that allow Forum discs to be burned with different booktypes.

So the short answer is -R for -R discs is the expected standard, but it's not impossible to have something else (read: ROM).

Scott

[RottenFoxBreath]

yeh,thats really what i meant.
didnt know it had to be absolutly perfectly written,jeez..!
pmsl.
anyhoo,model is now a pioneer 110,and a 109,with me old 105 in the kids pc...
id go for a pioneer 110,here in the uk,roughly about £32.so about maybe equates as about $60,cheaper to buy in the states,but thats a rough conversion.--rougher than dvdshrink on a bad day haha.